EnglishisEasy/Elinglésesfácil

"Oh no! Not another power blackout!"             NACIMIENTO NAVIDEÑO or PESEBRE NAVIDEÑO is a tradition which consists in recreating the moment of Jesus Christ's birth with small figures representing Joseph, Mary, the shepherds and the Wise Kings. Baby Jesus is set on December 25th of course, while the other figures are placed before, usually at the beginning of December.       The translation is NATIVITY SCENE, though some people only say CHRISTMAS SCENE. This last term is a bit broad -- even an image of Santa Claus riding his sleigh falls under that description. Saying CHRISTMAS NATIVITY SCENE would be perhaps more appropriate.                                                                                        Merry Christmas!     

"I'm not a STOWAWAY. I'm just evaluating this place and...it's so uncomfortable!' Once a person decides to get free passage to another place without paying the corresponding ticket by hiding somewhere in a train or a plane, that person becomes a STOWAWAY. There are several reasons for a person to stow away with illegal immigration, avoiding pursuit or just thrill-seeking among the most common. POLIZONTE is the word that is most often used in Spanish to designate a STOWAWAY.

"An OLD MAID you called me? I just bought the apartment you rent. Ha, ha!" The word is SPINSTER which refers to one of the very few jobs women were allowed in the past: spinning thread. A SPINSTER is an unmarried woman, childless and perhaps bitter. These days the term has acquired a connotation and is used for mature women who stand on their own and don't need a man to get on with their lives. Another common term, perhaps more appropriate for being less offensive is OLD MAID. 

"I feel something evil beneath the table. Maybe , it's a Poltergeist!" Originally taken from French the term SÉANCE indicates an attempt to communicate with the Dead. For a SÉANCE to take place it is necessary to use the services of a person with the faculty to transcend this world and talk with the spirits of those who have passed away and such person is called a Medium. That there is real contact with the beyond is questionable, but still lots and lots of people go for it anyway. In Spanish there is not one word for SÉANCE and we only say SESIÓN ESPIRITISTA.

(Seconds before biting the cake) : "Why are their hands so close to the back of my head?" English lacks one specific term to refer to that person who is celebrating their birthday which means we will always need two words. If it is a CUMPLEAÑERO then we say BIRTHDAY BOY. If it is a CUMPLEAÑERA then we say BIRTHDAY GIRL. It is uncommon to say BIRTHDAY MAN or BIRTHDAY WOMAN. If we don't want to specify gender we can say BIRTHDAY PERSON, though. It is possible to say CUMPLEAÑEROS as BIRTHDAY FOLKS. In Spanish, we call those who celebrate their birthdays in the same month as LOS CUMPLEAÑEROS DE (name of month). In English something similar is said but the emphasis is on the days not the people, e.g. OCTOBER BIRTHDAYS would be translated as LOS CUMPLEAÑEROS DE OCTUBRE when it really means LOS CUMPLEAÑOS DE OCTUBRE.

You can't see them but the guards are inside sleeping...erm...watching over us. To put the word GARITA in Spanish is no easy matter because a GARITA can have several purposes and the name varies accordingly. If it is for military purposes then it is a WATCHTOWER or a SENTRY OUTPOST. If the idea is only to exert some sort of control on who gets in and who gets out of a certain place then it is called a CHECKPOINT BOOTH or just a CHECKPOINT. This is perhaps the closest in meaning to the common definition of what a GARITA is in Latin America where closed private neighborhoods are abundant and many restrict the entrance by placing GARITAS with hired guards to look after things (as shown in the picture).  There is also the term PORTER'S LODGE which is a good option as well. 

Trump. "Damn wind! I'm sure it was sent by the Mexicans!" More often than not there comes a time in the lives of some unfortunate men that their hairline starts receding too soon, too quickly. And then there is a bald spot where there used to be glorious and abundant hair. Some accept the coming of the inevitable with dignity and others despair. However, no shampoo or intense capillary method is going to regrow hair in those bald spots. They will only get larger and also people will start staring. But that's how it is. And yet the despairing men find that concealing the truth is an option and they go the TOUPÉE way. TOUPÉEs (yes, the word is originally French) are hairpieces either natural or artificial that try to cover that awful bald spot (in some cases unsuccessfully as the man in the picture).  Since a Toupée is essentially a Wig and Wig in Spanish is Peluca, it only makes sense that TOUPÉE in Spanish is PELUQUÍN. 

"Mmmhh... a DOORJAMB is a rectangle thing you put on a door, right?" A DOORJAMB or DOOR JAMB is a wooden piece that forms the frame of a door. They are usually placed vertically on both sides of the door to support the upper side of the door frame which is commonly known as the Lintel. These vertical sidepieces are also called Doorpost.  In Spanish this example of what we, English teachers call Passive Vocabulary, is BATIENTE or JAMBA.

AIDE-DE-CAMP: "if the president was an AIDE-DE-CAMP in the past, will I get to be president myself? Mmmhhh. .." There is no English word for that and yet there is a term for that in English. Confused?   Me, too. (kidding!) Let's begin by clarifying what an EDECÁN is and what he or she does. An EDECÁN is basically a military officer who assists another officer who is his or her superior in rank. Constitutional presidents usually have an EDECÁN at their side in all official presentations even though they are not part of the military. As in most constitutions, presidents are the heads of the Armed Forces and therefore they outrank any general or admiral which is why they are assigned their own EDECANES "to protect" them so to speak, though really EDECANES are more symbolic figures than anything else. EDECÁN  in English is AIDE-DE-CAMP, not an English word since it was obviously borrowed from the French language, but the only term in English to mean

If we can say LET'S GET GOING, can we say LET'S GET COMING? Though it looks like an uncommon expression it is not. VAMONOS YENDO is used by Ecuadorians, only occasionally.  It is another way to say ¡Vámonos!,  and it is not an Ecuatorianism. In fact it can be found in several expressions of the Spanish culture such as some song lyrics from which it was probably taken. The equivalent in English is LET'S GET GOING. This expression is more often heard in English than it is in Spanish. The meaning is pretty much the same with a slight difference: it has a stronger sense of urgency, something like Let's hurry up!

Minimalism at its best...or worst. A FLOP HOUSE or FLOPHOUSE (DOSSHOUSE in British English) is a house or also a hotel that offers very cheap accommodations at very cheap prices because the services you get are well...cheap.  The quarters are mere cubicles, beds are small and bedrooms are usually shared. FLOP HOUSES are usually occupied by homeless people or low-income travelers. These days FLOP HOUSES have gained low reputation and some people use them to smoke drugs among other things. In the past FLOP HOUSES were known as Lodging Houses. There is not a real translation for it in Spanish. The closest would be PENSION DE MALA MUERTE or ALBERGUE PARA INDIGENTES.

"This FORD will save us some time like two or three minutes." We know FORD as one of the most famous names in the car industry, but FORD is also a shallow section in a river or a stream that can be safely crossed by walking or driving (as in the image on your left). There is a word for that in Spanish but it's rarely used. VADO is such term. Curiously, we prefer to say UN LADO CRUZABLE DEL RIO which is not necessarily the best Spanish expression out there. 

"Well, if they keep calling me a CAPO in Ecuador we could always send them some flowers or that thing called yucca."                              In Spanish a CAPO is a man, usually the leader of a criminal organization, who does not usually involve directly with his own business and commands everything from a discreet and remote position, more specifically, a Mafia leader. The word CAPO is originally Italian not Spanish and  is also used in English but is still considered an alien word. Curiously, the word CAPO is not as frequent as another, also an alien word, DON. In fact, there seems to be an underlying difference between both terms- DONS are CAPOS but of he highest possible kind.  

An example of really poor AIM. It depends. AIM as a verb is simply APUNTAR or DIRIGIR (hacia un objetivo).  It may also mean PROPENDER as when you want to achieve something. AIM as a noun may be OBJETIVO or PROPOSITO. Though it's not always that easy.  In the example: "Your AIM is impeccable!" we cannot translate AIM as OBJETIVO. In this case AIM means LA CAPACIDAD DE DAR EN EL BLANCO.

When you 're really angry your Gallbladder looks much bigger (and greener)! The right term is GALL BLADDER or GALLBLADER. As you can see in the picture, the GALLBLADDER is a pear-shaped organ, right below the liver, whose only function is to store bile produced by the liver which later on will be released in the small intestine. It is the bile the substance that helps our body deal with the fat contained in digested food. Curiously. it is possible to live without a GALLBLADDER. If removed, the bile will simply go from the liver to the intestine. It is not advisable to do it though (since there is a reason for it to be there) unless it is so full of Gallstones that is more a problem than a solution. Gallstones are formed when the bile stored in the Gallbladder is so full of cholesterol that the bile solidifies thus provoking stones. 

Hearse Driver: "Anyone else would like to jump in?" This choice was a bit creepy, wasn´t it? But I take them as they come. A HEARSE is a car used to carry coffins from churches to the funeral place and then the cemetery. Of course the itinerary is not necessarily that but a HEARSE is always a long car, a limo, used only to transport cadavers to their final resting place. In Spanish we used two words to refer to a HEARSE. We call it COCHE FUNEBRE or CARRO FUNEBRE. If the vehicle is one pulled by horses then it is a CARROZA FUNERARIA.   HEARSES are also called FUNERAL COACHES.

"A classic display of Mr.Wonka's SNARKY behaviour." SNARKY is an adjective word with several possible translations, all of them negative. It is also more often heard in British English than American. It  means SHORT-TEMPERED or IRRITABLE. e.g. You can tell he's upset when he begins with his SNARKY remarks. It may also mean IMPERTINENT, SARCASTIC or ARROGANT. e.g. You sound SNARKY whenever you say you want friends who are like you. In a slighter tone it is also IRREVERENT, perhaps WITTY, if it is the case someone has responded angrily but at the same time the situation is funny. e.g. "Do I look stupid?" he repeated SNARKILY "Maybe you're looking yourself at a mirror!"

If this is PILTRAFA then it looks yummy, doesn´t it? There are three meanings of this word in Spanish: a. Small thin portion of meat and skin (usually unfit to be used as food). b. A person of weak physical appearance (sometimes immoral too). c. Some inedible residues of food. Since PILTRAFA has three different meanings it is translated differently every time: a. Poor quality meat. b. Wretch. c. Scrap.

"Just 10 cents...Well, it's the 1950's anyway." A SHOESHINER, as the name clearly suggests, is a person (traditionally a boy) who polishes shoes or boots. It is what in Spanish we call a LUSTRABOTAS or just a LUSTRADOR DE ZAPATOS. Shoeshining is a job that practically exists worldwide and is also relatively new (there are no records that talk about SHOESHINERS before the XIX century).While in many countries, such as Ecuador, SHOESHINERS are underappreciated in others the situation is different and SHOESHINERS are often organized in associations. SHOESHINERS or SHOE SHINERS are also known as BOOT POLISHERS, or SHOESHINE BOYS.

"It's been thirty minutes already...maybe thirty more? Damn recipes!" Here is another example of how rich English vocabulary is. While in Spanish we need to say COCINAR A FUEGO LENTO, in English you only say SIMMERING. TO SIMMER  is to prepare food, usually in liquid, below the boiling point of water. What you actually do is let it boil and then reduce the intensity of heat so that bubbles stop forming and then  continue cooking, It's excellent for cooking soups or stews,

"I call it Scabby "       Whenever we get injured, blood comes out of our wound(s)á. Soon after that, our blood tends to solidify. This process helps our body to heal our injuries. The resulting product of the solidification of the blood that came out of our injury covers it creating a protecting layer that prevents potential infections.  Not only that but also under the layer new skin is being produced to replace the skin lost when the injury was inflicted. This useful layer is called SCAB in English and in Spanish is called CARACHA (at least in Ecuador) or COSTRA.

"Ahoy, Monty! Are you there? Say something, dammit!"  We are supposed to say something when we answer a phone call since remaining silent is not a smart option. It is also logical to say HELLO because as an item HELLO is conveniently short and not too formal or informal. Therefore HELLO is perfect in that sense, otherwise it would not have endured for so long. Still, the question remains: Why HELLO precisely? Who came up with that idea? Amazingly enough, it was not the inventor of the Telephone, Alexander Graham Bell. For him the best option was "Ahoy!" How did he come up with that idea? AHOY is the way sailors greet each other, and HELLO was not at the time (the 1870s) a standard greeting yet. HELLO was used the way we use HEY in our days. It was none other thanThomas Alva Edison, the inventor of the Lightbulb, who suggested to use HELLO instead of AHOY, and that was the beginning. In fact, the use of HELLO became so popular afterwards that people began u

    If all AGONY AUNTS looked like her... Have you ever heard of Agony Columns? An Agony Column is a specific feature you can find in papers or magazines. Readers submit letters to those sections detailing their personal problems in order to receive advice. An AGONY AUNT is the common name given to those who answer those letters sent to Agony Columns. Some Agony Aunts are quite good at giving advice and become famous like Marje Proops, a well-known AGONY AUNT in Britain or Anna Williamson (photo) in the U.S..     Are there AGONY AUNTS in the Spanish- speaking world? There are and have been plenty, but there is no specific name for them and the translation, TIA AGONIA, just does not work out. An AGONY AUNT is then only a CONSEJERA PERSONAL and if the problems she responds to are sentimental in nature she would be a DOCTORA CORAZON.